Double Digit Friday Gains in Corn

After a highly contested week the corn market finished in the black. Aided by double digit gains on Friday, July was up a nickel for the week and Dec up by 6 3/4 cents from Friday to Friday. USDA cited the weekly cash ethanol price near $2.38/gal with regional variance. DDGS were mostly weaker through the week, from -$25/ton to +$5/ton. Quotes were mostly $200-$240 depending on the region. The cash corn oil market was within 2 cents/lb of last week from 55 to 57 cents/lb.  

The weekly CoT report had managed money corn traders short covering through the week that ended 5/30. The spec short paper dropped 17.5%, but the group was still 51k contracts net short at the settle. Commercial corn hedgers added new shorts through the week, expanding their net short by 46k contracts to 148k. 

USDA’s FAS reported 186,695 MT of corn was sold for export during the week that ended 5/25. That was inline with the estimated range. That was led by 172k MT for Mexico. Old crop commitments were marked at 1.503 bbu through 5/25. That is 36% behind last year’s pace, and is 84.6% of the WASDE estimate. New crop bookings were shown as 312.6k MT for the week, slightly above the highest trade guess. Mexico was the top buyer. New crop commitments sit at 3.065 MMT, compared to the May WASDE estimate of 53 MMT for the full year. 

USDA’s monthly Grain Crushings report had 415.74 mbu of corn used for ethanol in April. That was a 4.7% drop from March but was near the same level as last season. Total corn use was officially 64.8% of the WASDE forecast through April with 3.4 bbu. 

StoneX estimated the Brazilian corn output at 133.75 MMT, up 2.2 MT, with 103 MMT for 2nd crop. Brazilian export data had 385k MT of corn exports for the month of May. That was well below the 1.09 MMT shipped last year. 

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.09, up 16 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.39 3/8, up 15 cents,

Sep 23 Corn  closed at $5.35 1/2, up 11 1/4 cents,

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $5.41 1/4, up 11 1/4 cents,